Tuesday, September 20, 2005

 

Spotlight: Italian troops seized the Papal States from the French on this date in 1870. The leader of the initiative was Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia . The victory over the Papal States, including Rome, made him the first king of a unified, modern Italy. Pepin the Short gave the territories in the middle of Italy to the papacy in the eighth century. Vatican City is the last of the Papal States, given its independence under the Lateran Treaty in 1929.

Quote: "Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy." – Bertrand Russell

Today in History:

• Ferdinand Magellan: explorer set sail to circumnavigate the globe (1519)
• civil rights: Mississippi governor Ross Barnett personally blocked entrance of African-American James Meredith to University of Mississippi (1962)
• Billie Jean King: won a battle-of-the-sexes tennis match against Bobby Riggs; 30,000 attended and millions watched on TV (1973)

Today's Birthdays:

• Upton Sinclair: writer/reformer, The Jungle (1878-1968)
• Joyce Brothers: psychologist/advice columnist (77)
• Sophia Loren: Italian actor/sex symbol (71)

Word of the Day:  irredentist: one who advocates return of what is now foreign land to the former occupants; the Papal States were irredenta territories, reclaimed by the Italians.   (© )